Snowbird
by SemblanceOfInvisibility
Summary: She had been the heiress to an empire, but that had changed and, now, as the walls came crumbling down, she couldn't help but wonder: what do you do, and how do you know who you are, when the mirror shatters and the fragments show someone that you don't recognise anymore? One-Shot


_**December 9th**_  
 _ **City Of Atlas**_  
 _ **Atlas**_  
 _ **Downtown**_  
 _ **9:39 PM**_

"I'm what?" Weiss stared in shock, her pale blue eyes wide. "No, you're -"

"I ain't lying," Qrow said, crossing his arms. "You said you wanted to know why Jacques disinherited you, why I spend so much time with your mother. Well, that's why."

Her hands shook as she sat down on the small settee in her room while he paced. "So you…you're my father?"

Qrow sighed. "There's no way around it. Jacques hadn't been around – he'd been on a business trip in the City Of Vacuo – on the day that your mother had gotten pregnant with you. The entire week, actually. There's no way he's your father, and if you really don't believe me then the fact that your DNA test results were altered at birth –"

"How did he find out?" Weiss buried her face in her hands. "And why didn't my mother –"

"I don't know why Willow never told you," Qrow said, sending her a sympathetic look. "But she and I were both scared for your safety. There's a reason I insisted that she raise you instead of me, and it had nothing to do with Jacques. It has to do with me, and I can't protect you from –"

"Your semblance," Weiss mumbled. "Ruby told me."

Qrow nodded. "Weiss, I'm so sorry –"

"Well, you should be," She snapped. "My entire life is going to be over when this becomes public news, my father – Jacques – is going to hurt my mother even more –"

"Jacques isn't going to lay a finger to her, not again," Qrow shook his head. "He's not. He's done too much, he's done more than just tarnish the Schnee family legacy –"

"I know that," Weiss said, biting her lip. "And I know that he's –"

"I'm sorry I wasn't honest with you from the start," Qrow said, glancing out the window. "I don't have an excuse, and I'm not going to make one up just because I'm ashamed."

Weiss stared down at her hands. "So I'm not even the person I thought I was starting to accept…"

"Weiss, I know you've had it rough," Qrow said as gently as he could. "But you know who you are, I've seen it. The way you fought at Beacon, the way you refuse to back down - that's who you are. You're not defined by your legacy, and you know it."

She sighed. "But how exactly do I know when all I want to do is run?"

"I get that," He said. "I know what it feels like to want to run away from who you are - believe me, more than once, I've wanted to do exactly that."

A weighty silence passed between them.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Willow all but shrieked as she stepped into the room, her hand only tightening around her wine glass. "And, Weiss, darling, what is wrong? You know that if your father sees you sitting and bent over like that that he'll be -"

"My father is standing right here and doesn't give a damn about my appearance!" Weiss exclaimed, fighting back tears as she spoke. "Don't even play that game with me anymore!"

Willow started to shake, then she activated her semblance to shut the door and lock it.

"Willow, she had a right to know -" Qrow started.

"I never wanted her to know…" Willow said, her voice shaking as she sat down on the edge of her daughter's bed and then set her wine on the nightstand. "The second this becomes public, we're all going to be facing scandal -"

"Jacques' ain't that stupid, he won't -" Qrow said.

"No, you don't know him like I do…" WIllow said quietly. "He's going to want this to be public, he's wanted something like this to happen for a long time…and it'll give him more of a reasonable explanation for why Weiss is disinherited."

Qrow shook his head. "But he's not a real Schnee, he married into the family, and so it doesn't matter because she is your daughter -"

"And he still is viewed differently than is true by the public because of how damn long he's held the company, because of long he's controlled it," Willow swallowed hard as she went on. "Nothing that I try is going to stop it, and it might make things worse."

"He can't take out our mistake on her," Qrow replied. "Weiss shouldn't have to pay because you and I made a mistake -"

"She's not a mistake -" Willow snapped.

"I don't think she's a mistake, I'm proud of her, I love her even though I wasn't...well…" Qrow hesitated as he went on. "I think you -"

"You were there," Willow said. "You visited me, still do, in the gardens -"

"I shouldn't have left her life, she should have at least known -" Qrow argued.

"Jacques would have -" WIllow started.

"He wouldn't have laid a finger to her," Qrow said. "And he rarely has because of you. Say what you will about yourself, Willow, but you're not a bad mother -"

"Yes I am…" She said softly. "Don't lie to me, even Weiss -"

"I would appreciate it if both of you would talk to me rather than about me," Weiss said, looking up with her blue eyes slightly narrowed as she looked to them. "Alright?"

Qrow sighed. "This is a difficult situation for all of us, please at least recognise that."

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Yes, I hadn't figured that out by the very fact that I'm your daughter."

Willow sent her a sharp look. "Weiss, I know you're upset -"

"He always suspected it, didn't he?" Weiss said, and Willow fell silent and looked down at her hands. "Is that why he's always hated me more than Winter? Why he's always -"

"He didn't know -" Qrow reminded her.

"Until a few days ago," Weiss snapped. "But it makes sense! Of course he was suspicious, of course he -"

"Weiss -" Willow said tiredly, attempting to reason with her even though she felt numb and her head was spinning a little.

"DId he ever figure it out before he overheard you two talking?" Weiss challenged, her voice shaking as she masked her confliction as best she could with anger. "Well?"

"He did figure out, around the time he admitted he never loved me, that I'd had an affair around the time I became pregnant with you but he never knew who," Willow said, biting her lip as she went on. "He never thought it was Qrow, though."

"Who the hell did he -" Weiss started as she stood up, clenching her fists.

"He thought you were James' daughter," Willow bit off, and Weiss stared at her in shock. "But only because of how close James and I were and still are. It never occurred to him that it was Qrow."

"Why would he think I'm General Ironwood's daughter?" Weiss asked her, an eyebrow raised. "I -"

"Because you're not the only child of mine that isn't his…" Willow said, glancing at her perfectly filed and painted nails. "He knew about my affair with James six years prior to you because I chose to be honest...but the difference is that your sister doesn't know. Even James...I don't think he does."

"Jimmy would probably lose his head if he knew," Qrow remarked dryly. "Let alone how he might feel about telling Glynda."

"Winter…" Weiss walked over to the window and tore open the curtains, watching the Atlesian airships - both military and civilian - above. "She's the General's daughter?"

"I've made more mistakes than most people, Weiss, but you and your sister were not any of them," Willow shook her head sadly. "I know how this must feel, and I'm sorry that you have to go through this -"

"Why couldn't you just tell us?" Weiss asked, though she didn't look at her. "And if father - Jacques - knew about Winter...why didn't he tell her when she joined the military."

"Jacques didn't tell her because I begged him not to and convinced him that our next child would be more than her," Willow said, sounding ashamed. "And he thought for so long that you were his, and I thought that I was protecting both of you...and I suppose, for a time, I was."

"But that's not how it works," Weiss said, her hands tightening around the edge of the window sill. "I still am not the person I thought I was, Winter isn't the person she thinks she is, and we are all -"

"Weiss -" Qrow started, attempting to reason with her.

"And if you knew all along about this, why didn't you tell us?" Weiss all but demanded though her voice was losing its force. "You have to work with Winter despite the two of you hating each other, you're friends with General Ironwood, and you've had more than enough chances to at least tell me that I'm your daughter!"

"I already told you that I don't have an excuse," Qrow snapped. "Weiss, I'm sorry about all of this but I wouldn't have been a good father to you - I probably would have hurt you because of my semblance, I would have caused more problems for Tai -"

"You might go off on your sister for having a skewed perception of family, but you do too," Weiss said, a tinge of bitterness in her voice. "If you cared so much, you would have been there for me even if you weren't being my father."

Qrow sighed. "Weiss -"

'"You know full well that I'm right," She said, fighting back the tears that were rising in her eyes. "So what the hell is the -"

"I didn't know what to do other than to distance myself because I thought you'd be safer, but that was stupid," Qrow shook his head. "You're right that whether or not I was afraid of my semblance that I should have been there for you because of the fact that, at the end of the day, you're always going to be my child."

Weiss sighed heavily. "Thank you for admitting that."

"Weiss, I am so sorry for everything," Willow said, her voice breaking as she turned to look at her daughter. "I shouldn't have lied, you deserved to know the truth…"

"Yeah, I did," Weiss said, looking down as a tear trailed down against her will. "But knowing makes it worse, knowing that you thought I'd be better off -"

"Weiss, I -" Willow started.

"No," She said, biting her lip. "I don't want to hear it…"

Qrow shook his head as he looked to Willow. "This is all my fault -"

"No, it's…" She started, curling into herself. "This isn't your fault...it's mine…"

Qrow considered replying, but instead buried himself in his thoughts for a moment as he took a long swig from his flask.

 _"We're going to have to protect her," Qrow said as he sat down across from Willow. "I know that you're not due for another few months, but if Jacques ever finds out, her life is going to be that much harder. It already is for Winter, with him knowing about her being James' kid."_

 _Willow bit her lip. "I don't even know what to do, other than not make the mistake I made the last time of telling him."_

 _Qrow nodded. "That makes sense. I don't want you to get hurt, Willow."_

 _"I already hurt enough…" She said sadly. "And all I can hope for is that things get better."_

 _Qrow took her hand in his. "They will."_

 _"Will they?" She countered, her voice breaking. "I don't even think Jacques' ever loved me but he's a damn prideful man- how do you think he'll react when he realises that this is the second child I've had with a man I genuinely love that's not his? It's all about appearances with him...and we just…"_

 _"I know," Qrow said, not knowing what to do. "And I'm so sorry that I'm hurting you."_

 _Willow shook her head. "No...it's on me. This is all on me…"_

Outside of his thoughts, though he could see it but wasn't truly paying attention, Weiss was still by the window, singing softly to herself.

"Mama you're beautiful tonight, movie star hair and that black eye - I can't even notice it when you smile so hard through that heartfelt lie," She sang, her voice breaking. "Go kiss the liquor off his laugh, another suitcase full of cash, shiny apologies in a velvet box what a real good man. We drive brand new cars, and we light fine cigars, we shine like small town stars through the best days of our lives...the pills fall like diamonds from my purse, right out the hole in my fur coat. Straight down the gutter goes my antidote to a broken girl. I promise I'll be the one you want, don't tell me I'm unfixable, you don't know what it's like to be seventeen with no place to go…"

Willow herself couldn't help but be struck by not only her daughter's voice, but by the words although her own thoughts were fixated around one fatal day.

 _"What do you mean you -" She started, though she was cut off by a slap._

 _"You and I both know I only married you for your family name and fortune," Jacques said, shaking his head. "The company is the benefit I got from that, and, I suppose, Winter was what you got from it too, albeit with the newly promoted 'General' Ironwood. This serves both of us well, but only if you don't try to squander and damn the name I've worked so hard to build and uphold."_

 _Willow shook her head. "That's not what you've been doing. It never has been, you -"_

"Weiss?" Willow finally said, forcing herself to speak and temporarily draw herself and them away from their thoughts as she began to drink her wine once more. "Are you at least going to be alright?"

She turned to face her, brushing aside tears, and then shook her head. "How can I be, when I don't even know who I am anymore?"

"You're still -" Qrow started gently.

"No, I'm not…" She said, her voice breaking as she looked in the mirror. "Mirror...tell me...who am I?"


End file.
